In yet another act of political cowardice on the issue of mountaintop
removal coal mining, a Tennessee House subcommittee voted to kill the
Scenic Vistas Protection Act and for the second time send it to summer
study.
Despite a passionate plea by bill sponsor Rep. Michael Ray McDonald,
the Conservation and Environment Subcommittee voted 6 to 4 to avoid a
direct vote and instead condemn the bill to a summer study session which
has no authority to vote on legislation. Reps. Richard Floyd, David
Hawk, Ron Lollar, Pat Marsh, Frank Niceley and John C. Tidwell all cast
pro-mountaintop removal votes. Representatives who voted to hear the
bill were Charles Curtiss, Brenda Gilmore, Mike Kernell and Art Swann.
“When this bill was introduced in 2008 there were 5 mountains
permitted for surface coal mining above two thousand feet in Tennessee.
Now there are 13,” Rep. McDonald said to the subcommittee. “We have lost
eight mountains since 2008 by delaying. If we don’t vote this year, we
will lose more mountains. Without our mountains, Tennessee is not
Tennessee.”
